Also steampunk, Minecraft, cross-canon shenanigans, and Danny Trejo!

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We spent most of Saturday morning and afternoon at Comicpalooza 2013 at the George R. Brown convention center in Houston. Of particular interest to us this year was the fact that Comicpalooza was sharing floor space with Galacticon III; if there's one bunch of folks that this author couldn't pass up the chance to meet and pester for photographs, it's the cast of Battlestar Galactica.

Of course, it's not all Battlestar Galactica—the show was big and featured tons of other sci-fi actors and personalities, including Danny Trejo, who is essentially badassery personified. Here are some of the photos we were able to snap on the floor of the show.

Danny Trejo (of Machete, Desperado, and many others) sits in front of a painting of Danny Trejo while wearing a shirt featuring Danny Trejo. I love this guy.

Lee Hutchinson

I am touched by Tahmoh Penikett (Helo). I think we were talking about snowboarding, but my memory fuzzes here. All I know is that I can never wash this shirt again.

Lee Hutchinson

Tahmoh Penikett (Helo) eagerly shows off his HTC Droid DNA. I made it a point to ask as many of the cast as I could what kind of smartphones they had on them.

Lee Hutchinson

Also touching me today: Michael Trucco (Sam Anders) and Esai Morales (Joseph Adama). Further reason to keep this shirt forever. These guys were hilarious, and I wish I'd been able to buy some drinks and hang out with them!

Lee Hutchinson

Morales and Trucco both use iPhones, though Trucco has a BlackBerry Z10 at home that he wants to try out. They were both impressed with the demo Lumia 928 I'm carrying around right now (and which I swear I will be writing a review of soon).

Lee Hutchinson

The man, the moustache: Edward James Olmos himself.

Lee Hutchinson

Sitting next to EJO was his son, Bodie James Olmos (Hotdog).

Lee Hutchinson

Michael Hogan (Saul Tigh), a couple of tables over. Hogan was taking extra time to talk to every single person who came to the table. He was incredibly friendly and he even shook my dirty journalist-hand and thanked me for stopping by. Classy and thoughtful!

Lee Hutchinson

Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh) was seated next to her TV husband, though the lines were too long for me to abuse my press privileges and ask them to pose together. She was actually engaged in a pretty lengthy conversation with a fan about the nature of desire and how it figured in to her character on the show.

Lee Hutchinson

Leah Cairns (Racetrack) smiles as I zoom by with my camera. Her character went through a pretty rough patch in season 4, but ultimately ended up saving the day. Sort of.

Lee Hutchinson

Luciana Carro (Kat) was busy signing when I snapped this pic. Out of everyone at the show, she was the only person to actually ask me which publication I worked for. She's smart, because I could have been anyone. I mean, except for the photo ID and stuff I had to use to get my press pass. Still, though, thinking like that is why she made CAG.

Lee Hutchinson

Kandyse McClure (Anastasia Dualla, or just "Dee"), the voice of the Battlestar Galactica.

Rekha Sharma (Tory Foster) is a tiny person. As my assistant was taking this picture, she joked that we should both start doing ludicrous inappropriate poses.

Lee Hutchinson

...and then this happened. She started banging out poses like a crazy person. It was hilarious and you can't see me because I'm off to the side laughing too hard. Sharma was a ridiculously good sport. Would buy beers & hang out with her.

There were several pinball tables set up outside the panel rooms. Shortly after I took this picture, they were swamped by curious teenagers.

Lee Hutchinson

Next to the pinball tables was a row of classic and neo-classic arcade games.

Lee Hutchinson

And next to THAT was an entire row of BattleTech simulator pods. Oh, man, multiplayer mall BattleTech was my kryptonite when I was younger. I had to fight off the urge to fling my wallet at the poor people manning the counter and dive into a pod.

Lee Hutchinson

And far away in the corner by the ReddyIce machine, a lone Starfleet officer waits dejectedly for a cellular signal...or maybe a transporter lock.

Lee Hutchinson

I departed shortly after, but the three-day-long Comicpalooza went on without me. These two Galactica crewpersons passed us as we were leaving. They look bound for adventure...or maybe the vendor hall.

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Lee Hutchinson
Lee is the Senior Technology Editor at Ars and oversees gadget, automotive, IT, and gaming/culture content. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and human space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX. Emaillee.hutchinson@arstechnica.com